Teenager held in Chhattisgarh for killing woman

Raipur: A teenager was held in Chhattisgar Monday, a day after he axed a woman to death allegedly for practising witchcraft, police said.

The killing was reported Sunday morning from Shanti Nagar area of Kurud town in Dhamtari district, some 100 km from state capital Raipur.

Tikeshwar, 17, had repeatedly hit the 45-year-old woman Kumari Bai Dheemar with an axe on her neck and head, SK Jain, who heads Kurud police station said.
Confessing to the killing, the young man claimed that he faced health problems because of witchcraft practiced by the slain woman, Jain said.

Chhattisgarh is infamous for crimes against women in rural areas.

Last month, a group of villagers from Raipur district pierced eyes of a couple with scissors, alleging that the wife practised witchcraft.
Faced with rising cases of atrocities against women in the name of witchcraft, the Chhattisgarh assembly had passed the Witchcraft (Prevention) Act in 2005 with stringent provisions of punishment for offenders. But the act hardly seems to be effective.